It's been a looooong time!

Ok, so it's been a long time since my last post!  Like most of you, I've been very very busy with getting my new kiddos into the kindergarten routine!  So far this year, we've done our All about School, All About Me, Colors and Shapes, Families, Community Helpers, Fire Safety, and Post Office units.  Wow, that's a lot of material!  I've got a student teacher right now, so I'm hoping now that she's taking over most of the teaching for awhile, I can start getting "ahead of the game" by planning ahead and also making some of the new stuff I've been inspired to make on Pinterest (my new addiction). 

So, this week we started working on patterns, sorting, and graphing in math.  The kids had tons of fun because we used a box of Fruit Loops to explore these concepts during the week.  We sorted the cereal by colors and then counted and graphed.  We also made pattern bracelets with pipe cleaners. 

This year we've also lost a lot of our math support due to budget cuts.  Since we don't have much extra help for math groups anymore, I've been trying to find things that the kids can work on independently if they've finished with their main math activity while I'm still helping others to finish.  Here's something that I made a couple of years ago that they really seem to like:  I made cardstock cards with numbers (1-20) and made a hole punch.  They have to made a chain with that many links and attach it to the card.  I'm not sure where the links originally came from; they were left in my room when I first started teaching.  Students in the past used to try to use them as jump ropes (um, no!!!), so I knew I had to come up with something better and FAST!!!  This is a much better use for them! :)

Another one they really like is a sticker number match.  I have sheets with numbers on one side and a box next to the numbers.  They have to place the corresponding amount of small stickers in the boxes. 

And one more thing that I've had them work on is coin sorting.  We don't start money for awhile, but coin recognition and counting are two things that are always really hard for the little ones; I think it's always a good idea to just start exposing them to the basics early!  So for this activity, I simply give them a handful of plastic coins and have them sort them on the graph.

So these are just a couple of the things that they are working on as "math stations."  I hope to take more pictures soon and post them as well.  I am also trying to work on some new stuff for them!  I LOVE making new things!  :)  I'm off to check out some more stuff on Pinterest!  Happy weekend!